Wednesday, May 24, 2006

A 'Fairy' Easy Fairy Cake Recipe

How to make the simplest Fairy Cakes!

I imagine things have changed since I was a little kid, but in my day, once the chocolate cornflake cakes and jam tarts had been mastered, Fairy Cakes were one of the next sweet delights a British child would learn to make in the kitchen. Fairy Cakes were also de riguer at every self-respecting single-digit birthday party in the country.

The Cottingley Fairies are no match for the Fairy Cake Fairies who magically appeared when my photographs were developed?

I have mentioned fairy cakes a couple of times on my blog before. The first time, I featured Fairy Cakes by my niece in Dublin, Mollie. The second time, more recently, I baked some for an English tea party. Neither time did I include a recipe, but since I get so many hits from people looking for information on how to make them, I thought it was time to share the instructions.

This recipe, no doubt a Marguerite Patten one originally, is so etched into my brain from my childhood, I don't even need to go and look in a book when I bake them. There is nothing elegant or sophisticated about these cakes, they are simply childish wonders which attract magical fairies.Ingredients (makes 30 mini fairy cakes):4 ounces butter4 ounces Baker's or Caster Sugar4 ounces sifted Self Raising Flour (or All-purpose flour + half tsp baking powder + pinch salt)2 eggs1 cup sifted Powdered or Icing sugarJuice of a lemon (*and zest, optional)Food colouring of your choice if desiredSilver Ball Cake Decorations (illegal to buy in California, so huge thanks to lovely Lynette for hooking me up with some)

Method:-Put butter and eggs out of the fridge, to warm up to room temperature.-Preheat oven to 375F-Put out 30 mini paper cases on a baking tray.-Either by hand or in a mixer bet the butter and sugar together until pale, fluffy and light. (*optional - add lemon zest at this stage if you desire)-One at a time, beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then add to the sugar/butter mixture, beating hard, until all the ingredients are incorporated.-Gently fold the flour into the butter mixture until everything is combined. Do not over mix or beat the flour.-Using a teaspoon, drop small heaped teaspoon dollops of the batter into the paper cases. -Transfer the tray to the preheated oven. Leave at least 17 minutes without opening the door. They should be golden brown on the surface once cooked. If still a bit pale after 17 minutes, turn the tray in the oven and bake for a further 3 minutes.Transfer mini cakes to a cooling rack.-Meanwhile add a few drops of colouring to the sifted powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Add fresh lemon juice, a small squirt at a time, beating hard, until all the sugar is blended into a thick fondant. Go gingerly with the liquid, you want it to be very thick. Stop adding lemon juice as soon as it reaches the fondant stage.-Carefully drop a dollop of the fondant onto the centre of each little cake. Leave it to spread over the surface. You can guide the icing with a knife dipped in hot water if you want more control over where it dribbles.-Top with a candy or cake decoration of your choice.-Look for the fairies!

I must make some of these, esp. as I had a secret international pal (who couldn't believe the silver dragees were illegal here) send me some, and then I didn't know what to do with them once they arrived.

Enchanting. They look perfect. I wish I'd seen them last week when I made some for my flatmate. (Mine were are rather unappetising pink colour with sparkly sprinkles . . . in my defence, my flatmate is a bit of a barbie girl). But what I want to know is, how did you get the surfaces so flat? Cheers!

OK - sorry taking so long to replying to this thread.Someone asked about the origin of fairy cakes and I searched the internet high and low but could not find the answer, except thatperhaps they were invented in the 1920s, and they are meant to be dressed up like fairys? Wikipedia erroneously (I think?) describes what I would call a 'butterfly cake' as a fairy cake and their reason for bing (having wings).

Catherine - they are so easy to make - i like the mini ones because it produces more quantity and they are more magical when they are small.

L - to have yo say you like my photo is n honour indeed.

Lex - I couldnt have done it without you! So thanks again.

Mae - i think the colouring was three parts blue to 2 parts green. I was thinking of the sea.

Wheresmymind - if only I HAD have been having a partay instead of scoffing them on my lonesome.

here is the reply I sent to FLudder:Hi Ruth, thanks for visiting my site. Sorry about the cooking conversions. It's difficult because so many people around the world use different standards. I have thought in the past about providing conversions but it is not an easy thing to do and mistakes can be made. (I wouldn't like to be responsible for ruining a recipe due to my bad maths). In the real world (where people get paid to write recipes) recipes are checked by testers (and even then they often make mistakes). Since blogging is just a fun hobby for me, I decided not to offer this service, since no one is paying me anything and I don't have the time necessary to do that job properly. I try to give as much useful info on my blog as possible and I pass on a lot of outgoing links but I have to draw the line somewhere.

I don't think it is a 'famous food blogger' problem really, food bloggers give so much to their readers and there has to be a limit. The reader can take on some of the burden too. I have a conversion chart in my kitchen. It is always there, sitting on the counter behind the scales and I use it when I get recipes online from all over the world. And I bought scales which can weigh grams or ounces digitally, this way I can follow just about any recipe.

I found this conversion web page for you. I hope it helps. I also wanted to let you know that "oz" is short for ounce but since I now realise that isn't immediately obvious to people who aren't used to ounces, I eedited my post to include the full word.

Fludder - also - I grew up on much bigger fairy cakes, almost muffin size, and they do taste just as good plus they stay moister for longer. These days I like the mini ones because I think they are cute but they are better eaten the same day otherwise they dry out.

Lady A - yes thy are nagical aren't they???

Farmgirl - my pleasure - I bet you have fairies living on your farm!

Bruno - it was nothing too special, just a bit of wire removal thats all.

Bill - this is what the dreams of grandaughters are made of!

Barbara - I searched and searched and can't find the answer as noted in my intro to this comment :(If anyone knows???

Rachel - I made pink ones last time. I am not sure how I get them so flat. They actually have a slight dome, but mine always seem to end up this way. I do a very thick icing so the top surface is smooth. (I try and underfill the cases a bit before baking too - maybe that is it?)

Although there is no evidence that the traditional decorations are toxic and certainly no one has been injured by their consumption, a busybody lawyer has codified by fiat his hatred of the little silver balls into de facto state policy. In a state of 30 million residents one maniac with an ax to grind is afforded respect and power despite never being elected or appointed to any legislature or governing board.

Head over to that site and do a search for 'silver' on the page to find more details

It's not clear exactly what makes a fairy cake a fairy cake. I have seen several different recipes, and I thought it was the use of fruit (for example, raisins) but yours don't have any. Is it any small cupcake? Thanks.

I searched the internet high and low but could not find the answer to what makes a 'fairy cake', except that perhaps they were invented in the 1920s, and they are meant to be 'dressed up' like fairys? Wikipedia erroneously (I think?) describes what I would call a 'butterfly cake' as a fairy cake and their reason for bing (having wings). It does seem it is more a British phenomena than a US one. To me it's just as confusing as to what a cup cake is (I was brought up on 'cup cakes' that do not resemble the american ones we know today). I have eaten hundreds of fairy cakes over the years, especially as a little kid over the years, and they have all been a little sponge cake (mostly plain or white sponge) with a little icing or frosting and some decoration of some kind. Never have fairy cakes been known to have huge towering mountains of butter cream.

Thanks for the info on fairy cakes. I should mention that I got here after a mention of fairy cakes on the British TV comedy series, As Time Goes By - my wife and I watch it whenever it's on, even tho we have seen every episode many times. The group was putting on a party for some old folks, and one of the items was "fairy cakes." Actually, I am putting together a list of British colloquialisms used on the show - thinks like fry-up, Sod's law, got legless, J cloth, etc.

Re: colloquialisms - not sure what I will do with the list once I have it - probably a web page rather than my blog. But I will certainly post a note here, and I will include a link here for anyone who wants more info about fairy cakes!

hey! this actually came up in a google search for a fairy cake recipie, i love it and i've made it twice already! i made one itty bitty change though:instead of using lemon to make the icing, i used immitation vanilla extract, it's yummy!

I've just discovered your blog after searching for a fairy cake recipe (my baking only runs to Rice Crispy cakes) - it's wondeful! I'm a Brit living in Davis, CA and will be hosting a tea party on July 4 to celebrate our daughter's first birthday. The St George's day pics looked amazing too.

your recipe is really nice and easy to follow my mum and i have used this recipe be4 and cant rezizt the tast we iv made them for my friend and famlie from england to india and they all love them and i am making them today too

'Becks and Posh' is modern cockney for 'nosh'. Follow English-Girl-Abroad, Sam Breach, on her culinary travels, mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area, but also further afield, whilst she plays at being amateur restaurant critic, wine taster, food photographer, cocktail connoisseur, party planner, good food forager and practising home cook, with trusted French advisor, Fred, by her side.